We have been nearly a week in Vietnam now and having such a good time. Hanoi, as mentioned before, was really hectic, so busy. It seems there must be a competition to see how many people can fit on one motorbike!! We have even seen a 9 year old boy transporting his dad and a live cow tied up on the back!! Nothing suprises us anymore!!! Really enjoyed the restaurants on the river and shopping in the markets. We booked a Halong Bay trip with our hostel as we heard of so many scams we thought this would be the better option. Our biggest worry was booking something and then being placed on a different boat which seems to be most peoples disaapointment. After looking at several options we took the fantasea adventures trip which looked great and came reccommended. We were picked up by a lovely guide and met some nice canadians during the 3 hour trip to the harbour. We arrived at the harbour where hundreds of tourists were waiting for their boats, and were then extremely angry when another guide sepearated us from the rest of the group and did exactly what we were worried about, took us to another boat. What was worse is we watched our origianl group board our original boat, which looked brilliant, while we boarded ours right next to them, which wasnt as great. After complaining the guide and the crew were adament that there boat was also part of fantasea adverntures which we knew was a lie, but at that point there was nothing we could do but enjoy our trip and take it up with the hotel on return.

The boat turned out to be ok, we had a good group and the Islands were beautiful. We took a stop at the Suprising Cave which was huge, and saw many floating villages. The food on the boat was not great, I told them I didnt like Seafood, as did 3 others as we were told different dishes would be cooked, but it seemed that they dug out whatever they could find in their fridges eg, lots of sweetcorn!! We had an hour kayaking around the islands and then a couple hours swim. The evening was very quiet, their choice of enterntainment was one game of Jenga!!! Our original trip was supposed to involve lots of evening entertainment. The following day we moved to, what should have been our original boat and met up with our orginal group, which as expected they had a fantastic time, karoke, parties, late night swims etc. Typical!! We then sailed to another floating village and took a small boat in and around the caves and around the houses and schools, the children had just finished for the day and were rowing themselves back home, was really interesting to see. We were suprised to see so many people living out into sea in a small flaoting house. The last hour, the crew asked us to fill in a questionnaire with their company logo on, (no mention of fantasea adventures) which we did. about 2ominutes later we then had another questionnaire from fantasea adventures, confirming we were not on a fantasea adventures boat. Martin was really angry at this point.

On our return to the hostel, they were shocked by our movement to another boat as they swore this wouldnt happened, and phoned the agent to complain refunding us a little of our money. The first call made the agent told them we were moved to another fantasea adventures boat and the second they finally admitted that it wasnt there boat. It was a bit of shame, but we still got to see Halong Bay which was beautiful.

That evening we saw the water puppets which was interesting and different, very beautiful, but a little long. We were exhausted the following morning, as we were woken up at 5am with a Gecko!! As I have developed a little fear of the Geckos around Asia, I couldnt sleep so it was up to Martin to spend the next hour trying to get it out. They run very fast - so he was not best pleased!! That evening we took a flight to Hoi an which was a little bumpy, as we were in the middle of a thunder storm - not nice. Arrived at our hostel around 6pm and went straight for tea. Hoi An is known for its tailoring but we didnt realise how many shops actually carried out this service. There must be hundreds, making suits, coats, dresses etc personally for you at cheap rates, (suits - 25-30pounds!!). Mum and Jo - Cruise dresses galore!!! The town is lovely, reminds us of Laos just a little busier, everyone is here for the shopping, but the harbour and the markets are just as nice.

We hired mountain bikes again today and took a 4km busy ride to the beach, which was very hot, white sand, and amazing views. The sea was really clear and the beach was suprisingly quiet so hoping to make another few trips back before we leave to top up the tan!! Hope everyone at home is well.